


i tried to wash away but you just won't leave

by knightswatch



Series: Pack Mentality [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Bad Senpai Oikawa, Gen, Good Senpai Oikawa, M/M, Pre-Slash, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 13:08:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4788365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightswatch/pseuds/knightswatch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Not interested,” he dismisses and blinks in shock when Yahaba leans down and pulls them out again. Maybe Kyoutani should scare him; maybe he should be worried for his life when their faces hover close together and Kyoutani's eyebrows knit together like they might be stuck that way forever. The emotion making Yahaba's stomach turn certainly isn't fear, which is really more worrying in the end.</p><p>“I didn't ask you a question. You have to,” he stands up again, shaking his head, suddenly desperate to get out of Kyoutani's space. “We have another tournament coming up and no one wants to lose this one, so you should drag your slacking ass in for once.”</p><p>“I already told you, I practice on my own,” he rolls his eyes but doesn't try for his headphones again. Instead he studies Yahaba just like Yahaba studies him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i tried to wash away but you just won't leave

After their strange talk, it seems like Oikawa goes further out of his way than usual to play some kind of mentor for Yahaba. He doesn't mind it-- it's exactly the opposite really, he's still scared of the fact that in a few months he'll be stepping into the older setter's shoes permanently, and no matter how much he grows in that time when Oikawa leaves there will be a hole in their team. Oikawa starts ducking in to see him at the very beginning of lunch hours, passing him DVD's of games that he has recorded and asking Yahaba to bring back notes on what he sees in them, even starts dragging Yahaba to watch games with them.

Sometimes he gets Iwaizumi to come too, which only makes Yahaba feel a little bit awkward. It's the only time he's ever spent with the ace outside of practice and he's still not entirely sure how to act around him, especially with the possible gang connection that he still doesn't have any other explanation for. Oikawa pulls Yahaba to the rail next to him during one of these games, his smile gleaming white as he nods to the setter on one of the teams currently playing.

“He's not very good is he, Shi-chan?” Oikawa asks and Yahaba hums slightly in response. He's not wrong-- the setter has missed several important tosses and forced his team to compensate because of it, but somehow they're still well ahead. “But he's still important to his team, you see. He's using more of his energy to dominate his team than to control the ball.”

Yahaba doesn't miss Iwaizumi rolling his eyes at Oikawa's other side, managing to look fairly bored by the game. Yahaba has noticed he spends more of his time watching Oikawa than the teams competing. He always manages to be looking away when Oikawa might catch him though, and Yahaba files the strange information into the back of his mind. This time Iwaizumi actually gives a small snort. “I don't think that's what he's doing, dumbass.”

“Of course it is, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa sounds tremendously offended, leaning his elbows on the railing. “And that's another dollar in the swear jar.”

“Hah? We're not even at practice!” Iwaizumi frowns, shaking his head sharply and making Oikawa smirk at him.

“You're setting a bad example for my most beloved kouhai. Swear jar,” Oikawa nods smartly before turning back to Yahaba with the same grin plastered over his face. “He might be able to play better as a setter if he learns to use the ball to control the motions of his team instead.”

Yahaba tries not to take Oikawa's careful dissections of other players to heart. He used to be scared that every remark he made on a playing style or mistake was meant to relate back to Yahaba's performance; Oikawa's perception of things that he needed to work on himself, but he was starting to understand that Oikawa wasn't trying to constantly criticize him in some strange, roundabout way (partially because it had become clear that if Oikawa wanted to criticize him, he would do it directly), but instead he was trying to show Yahaba how to pick out the weaknesses in others that might help him win a match or inspire the team.

“Would it be better if he had more faith in his team?” Yahaba blinks as he asks, brushing the soft strands of his hair out of his face to try and study them more closely. The blockers and the libero are both impressive, but the setter doesn't seem to trust either to do their job. Oikawa nods his head furiously.

“Astute, Shi-chan,” Oikawa gives him a thumbs up before turning back to the game, his smile twisting wicked. “He's trying too hard to be a big, strong alpha male! A team is six players working together, not a big bad wolf and his underlings.”

Iwaizumi's usual staring at the side of Oikawa's face turns to glaring. Yahaba tries not to laugh at the strange phrasing; it's similar to how everything is kings and peasants when they play against Karasuno, though those are all pointed at Oikawa's former kouhai. Yahaba is glad, not for the first time, that Oikawa doesn't perceive him as a threat. His instruction is more than invaluable-- Yahaba has improved faster working at Oikawa's back than he ever could have spending the last two odd years trying to be a starting setter already. 

When the games finish, Oikawa and Iwaizumi treat him to ramen in a small shop they seem comfortable in, spending most of the meal bantering back and forth. It's softer than he's used to seeing though; Iwaizumi mostly grumbles good-naturedly and Oikawa seems far less desperate to actually hold onto his attention. Occasionally they even lapse into silence for periods longer than several seconds, something Yahaba hasn't seen from them outside of extended bus rides.

These trips get more infrequent as Spring High starts to loom closer and closer, as Oikawa starts to really fall into pushing himself. Yahaba, desperate to find some way to take a little more edge off the rest of the team (and perhaps hoping that he can really improve their chances of winning), does something truly wild by his own standards.

He actually tries to find Kyoutani.

It takes far longer than it should and makes him late to practice more than once, but eventually he spots a familiar head of bleach-blond hair ducking into the library before the final bell and manages to chase him into a small spot between the shelves. Kyoutani is tucked in and comfortable already, headphones in his ears, and he doesn't look up until Yahaba nudges his leg several times, standing over him with crossed arms. Kyoutani's face drops like a stone into dark waters, pulling the headphones out with a huff.

“What do you want?” He demands, not making any motion to close the book in his lap. Yahaba wonders, briefly, what he's reading before shaking the thought away.

“You have to come to practice,” his voice is just as demanding and he doesn't balk when Kyoutani glares at him. He looks better than the last few times Yahaba has seen him around; no bruises and perhaps even slightly less angry than before. It's hard to tell, because he rolls his eyes and starts putting his headphones in again.

“Not interested,” he dismisses and blinks in shock when Yahaba leans down and pulls them out again. Maybe Kyoutani should scare him; maybe he should be worried for his life when their faces hover close together and Kyoutani's eyebrows knit together like they might be stuck that way forever. The emotion making Yahaba's stomach turn certainly isn't fear, which is really more worrying in the end.

“I didn't ask you a question. You have to,” he stands up again, shaking his head, suddenly desperate to get out of Kyoutani's space. “We have another tournament coming up and no one wants to lose this one, so you should drag your slacking ass in for once.”

“I already told you, I practice on my own,” he rolls his eyes but doesn't try for his headphones again. Instead he studies Yahaba just like Yahaba studies him.

“That doesn't make you anymore useful to the team. Get up, we're going,” Yahaba turns and starts walking without waiting for an answer and feeling the slight warmth of Kyoutani walking at his elbow is such a shock that he actually stops. Kyoutani stares at him strangely until he starts moving again without explaining. Honestly, he expected Kyoutani to tell him to go fuck himself, not to simply shrug his bag on and follow along.

But Kyoutani offers him no complaint as they walk to the gym; in fact he really says nothing at all, which unnerves Yahaba slightly. He finds picking on Kyoutani easy, perhaps too easy, but at least with it he knows what to expect. Kyoutani walking with him in an uneasy sort of quiet leaves him feeling a little floundering, like the first game he had to play against Karasuno after Oikawa injured his stupid ankle.

It seems like his annoyed thoughts about the other setter conjures him from thin air, because he steps out of a bathroom and turns to the both of them with a blink and a wide smile starting to stretch across his face. He's starting to get better at reading the nuances in Oikawa's smiles, if only because he's always so careful about how others look at him that he thinks he understands just a little of Oikawa. He knows he'll never have Iwaizumi's level of mastery, but he's picked up some things. This is not a happy smile, not a genuine one. There's a scheme behind it somewhere.

“Shi-chan!” He waves his hand too excitedly in the air and Yahaba nods in return, wishing not for the first time that he had a less eccentric senpai who could mentor him. It's a futile wish, given that the only sane third-year on the team is Iwaizumi and his position as ace and vice-captain sets him apart from the kind of instruction that Yahaba really needs.

“Afternoon, Oikawa-san,” he reserves calling Oikawa 'senpai' as a form of teasing him. Oikawa's smile softens slightly but his eyes remain steel-hard as he looks at Kyoutani.

“Are we giving Mad Dog-chan a flea bath today? I'm not used to seeing him anymore, perhaps he's gone a little mangy?” It's not the kind of gentle teasing Oikawa usually gives; he has his 'Tobio-chan' voice on, velvety and sinister. Next to Yahaba, Kyoutani's entire body seems to tense, his hand gripping tighter around the strap of his bag.

“Yahaba-kun said I had to come to practice,” his answer is gruff and Yahaba tries not to let slip his shock that Kyoutani knows his name. He would have bet his weekly lunch budget on Kyoutani not having any idea what it was. He's getting uncomfortably used to Kyoutani surprising him today. Oikawa gasps in faked shock.

“Has Shi-chan tamed Mad Dog-chan?” He leans closer to Yahaba, faking a whisper. “How did you do it? Positive Reinforcement? Shock collar training?”

“I asked him very nicely,” he answers, though that's not true at all either. Still, he's not sure he wants to play into Oikawa's mission of picking on Kyoutani, watching the other boy get more and more frustrated by it. His teeth gnash together and he glances at Yahaba, huffing out a harsh breath. He has no idea how to actually placate Kyoutani's temper and he tries giving him a small smile. Kyoutani looks pointedly away.

“Whatever. Can we just go play fuckin' volleyball?” He huffs, and if Yahaba didn't know better he would have thought that Kyoutani had shifted almost behind him. It's a silly thought and he dismisses it until Oikawa laughs again and it still sounds cruel.

“Swear jar, Mad Dog-chan. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have Shi-chan play fetch with you?” His lips curls over his smile and Kyoutani looks directly at him for the first time.

“Fuck this,” is all he says, turning and stomping back down the hall without a glance back at either of them. Yahaba sighs, pressing his palm to his forehead and shaking his head slowly.

“Oikawa-san, you could have been a little nicer to Kyoutani-kun,” he looks up with a small frown. Oikawa just shrugs his shoulders, looping one arm over Yahaba's shoulders and tugging him along towards the gym.

“You'll understand when you're older, Shi-chan.”

**Author's Note:**

> I swear this isn't a never-ending hell of pre-slash. I have a plan. Just hang in there.


End file.
